2015 Word of the Year: They (transgender/gender-neutral singular pronoun)

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — The American Dialect Society selected they for their yearly selection of “word of year” for 2015. From Time magazine:

“[the “word of the year” winner], with this specific definition:

they: gender-neutral singular pronoun for a known person, as a non-binary identifier.”

” . . . like so many things in 2015, was about gender identity and self-determination. This version of they is the one that a person, transgender or cisgender, can use when they don’t feel like he or she fits quite right. This version of they is the one a person might use to refer to everyone they know just to jolt people into second-guessing some of the assumptions society has long had about gender—about all hims and all hers, about what destiny is really in store for any baby who is proclaimed to be a boy or a girl in the delivery room.”

Ben Zimmer, a sociolinguist who was also involved in the voting process: “You’re getting into issues of transcending the gender binary, they is getting used as a pronoun that people take for themselves to express gender fluidity or transgender identity. That’s relatively new or at least new in the public eye.”

Runner ups for 2015 includes Thanks, Obama and ammosexual. Last year #blacklivesmatter was word of the year.